Aircraft typically navigate by means of magnetic heading using a directional gyroscope that is synchronized with or slaved to a magnetic field sensor that detects the earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field sensor provides magnetic north-based signals that are used to eliminate the effects of gyro drift caused by unbalance, friction, the rotation of the earth or other phenomena. It has been found, however, that in the vicinity of the earth's magnetic poles, the magnetic reference generated by the magnetic field sensor becomes unreliable and not suitably stable to provide navigation cues. In fact, in the area designated as Canadian Northern Domestic Airspace (CDNA), aircraft are required to navigate using a true north reference instead of the magnetic reference. For many larger aircraft, this is accomplished using a gyrocompass or an inertial reference system (IRS). For smaller aircraft, however, these systems are typically too costly to be deployed. Instead, many smaller aircraft obtain the true north reference by disengaging the directional gyroscope from the magnetic field sensor, resulting in an unslaved or free directional gyroscope, then manually preforming heading corrections in accordance with visual and/or other navigation references. It has been found, however, that due to gyro drift, a free directional gyroscope must be manually corrected periodically to maintain the desired heading. As the manual corrections must typically take place on the order of every five to ten minutes, this creates a significant workload burden on the pilot.